Saturday, 9 December 2017

An unlikely victory

Today, it was just Lawrence and I doing 7YW again. We had a 12' table again so had plenty of space, even with some oddly dispersed terrain.Lawrence used his Reichsarmee troops, with some French allies. Being an imaginations force, he could make them whatever quality he wanted.Frederick again diced himself as the defender! Never mind...

Our armies at setup, despite being able to deploy in the flank sectors of the table, Lawrence opted to have a smaller front than me...

Far out on the right, my weak wing. 1 Kuirassier regiment, a dragoon regiment, and 5 squadrons of Hussars.

Lawrence had some bad luck activating his reserve! Only Regt. Bretlach began deploying left to face my weak wing.

Despite the protestations of their commander, the rest just stood there!

Lawrences' infantry centre took its time trying to advance, the centre was somewhat...slow off the mark!

His right wing cavalry began advancing, barring Regt. Ansbach, which steadfastly refused to move!

My right wing had similar problems, the commander rushing ahead with the Kuirassiers, leaving the rest behind!

Being outnumbered in cavalry on both wings, Von Dreisen, could only hope to catch the enemy while they were manoeuvering.

A brigade (Including the Guards) of infantry started advancing towards the Imperial left. I had 2 battalions of Grenadiers hidden in the wood, but these initially failed to get the order to advance!

Seydlitz, on my left, deployed out to engage the long Imperial-French cavalry line.

On my right, Regt Bretlach formed to engage my Kuirassiers.

Regt Trauttmansdorff now - finally - moved to support them!

The Imperial centre had now sorted itself out, and was slowly advancing.

The right wing Imperial cavalry were also advancing against Seydlitz.

His Cuirassier force moved to contact.

At the end, only KR8 remained on position, all the Imperial horse and KR8 had broken off the close fought battle, and rallied back!

Both sides showed some 'wear and tear'!

The Imperials began to reform.

Meanwhile, Regt. Alsace - supported by artillery...

...Drove back IR15! - so much for the Guard! (My grenadiers can be seen on their right, having finally come out to support my cavalry wing)

The 2nd Prussian line, however, rapidly ordered their ranks and advanced in their place.

The French fell back in turn, disrupting their supporting line.

Back on my left, the Imperial artillery was firing on my cavalry...

KR8 was heavily hit - effectively ending their ability to fight.

Regiment Bretlach met my right wing Kuirassiers...

He broke the Prussian horse and pursued them off.

The second line of the Alsace brigade now advanced against my victorious infantry...

My second line troops, screening the discomfited guards, scattered them with a crashing volley!

Things began to go badly for the Imperial side now, they attacked with their main infantry line and lost heavily in the fire-fight. I now found that Lawrence had made most of his front line battalions 'high morale' and they stood!

My rallied Guards, led by Frederick himself- now began to enfilade the advancing Imperial infantry.

Blasted by the Prussian artillery from their front as well, Blau-Wurtzburg broke and ran.

On my left, Seydlitz drove the dragoons to face the Imperial horse as it tried to outflank them. Some Imperial Kuirassiers charged KR7...

Inspired by Seydlitz, the Prussian horse won!

The Franco-Imperialist line now began to break up as the Prussians advanced.

That was a very hard won victory for the Prussians - again! I felt I was always playing to the Imperialists tune, trying to plug gaps, but the reliable Prussian war machine held together!PS: The rules (my own) that we used are available freely on our website, they have been slightly updated and clarified in the current version! (Updated 11/12/17)